Monday 14 July

Tuesday 15 July

Wednesday 16 July

Thursday 17 July

Friday 18 July

Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 July

 

Monday 14 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • At 13, TEE maths and physics are just a breeze for whizkid Amitesh
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "While most teenagers take five years to finish high school, this year's youngest TEE student, Amitesh Datta, 13, plans to wrap up his secondary education
    in just three.

    "The Shenton College student skipped from Year 8 to Year 11 for three of his subjects last year, which means he will sit for the TEE in calculus, applicable mathematics and physics this year. He will be just 14 when he finishes Year 12 after he completes chemistry and English next year.

    "His father, Amitava, who lectures in computer science at the University of WA, said he and his wife Lakshmi, a former university maths lecturer, fostered their only child's natural mathematics ability when he was younger.

    "They did not push him and never expected him to take to maths with such a passion. "He's largely self-taught," Mr Datta said. "He taught himself calculus two years ago."

    "Because he was so far ahead of other Year 8s who were still struggling to master fractions and decimals, it became difficult to motivate Amitesh to attend school last year. "It was too easy and too repetitive for him to sit in the class," Mr Datta said.

    "Towards the end of last year, they moved him from the elite private school he had attended to Shenton College, which allowed him to zoom ahead of his classmates.

    "To tell you the truth, I had completely the wrong impression of public schools before, but I really have learnt a lot in the last year," Mr Datta said. "They treated him according to his ability rather than his age. He's quite well accepted by his classmates
    as well, in Years 11 and 12."

    "Mr Datta said the only subject which presented problems was English, not because he had problems with writing but because he lacked the life experience of older students.

    "In his spare time, Amitesh studies maths courses online from Stanford University in the US. He said maths appealed to him because it was both abstract and logical. He hoped to study theoretical mathematics after he left school. "I might become a mathematician," he said."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Education fight
      
      "I write in support of Jessica Jackman's letter (12/7). Here is a young teacher disenchanted and obviously very experienced, having obtained her Level 3 status, leaving an education system in crisis. Like me she has no energy left to fight a battle that is unwinnable.

      "Like her I now realise after 28 years that no one in government cares for the people keeping the system together with great passion and goodwill. Instead they are "beating us down", squeezing the lifeblood from the very people who love teaching and children so much that we have had continuous governments underfund education.

      "The State Government will reap what it sows, just like Alan Carpenter as a former Education Minister has got to accept some of the blame for today's crisis.

      "It is shameful that the IRC will now have the power to decide the new enterprise plan for WAs public education system when they do not work on the inside.

      "Please read the Twomey Report; it is no surprise to those of us who are fighting to save the education system that we are in desperate need of help."

      D.Clarke, Hamilton Hill
      
      

    • Cause of crisis

      "I read through the enterprise order that has been delivered by the Department of Education and Training and discovered that for a pay rise of 3.9 per cent I would lose just over three weeks of my away-from-school time. This wouldn't include the non-specified amount of time during which I can be ordered to attend parent interviews, school camps or school socials, etc. What a deal.

      "It is incredible that Mark McGowan cannot understand why teachers are not grateful, that he cannot understand that the way the teaching profession is treated by the
      Government is directly responsible for the teacher crisis. I am very keen to see what pay deal the politicians arrange for themselves."

      Andrew Bell, Woodvale
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Australian Islamic College charges denied
    by Alana Buckley-Carr
    
    "The director of one of Australia's best-known Islamic schools will fight charges that he defrauded the West Australian and commonwealth governments of more than $3 million.

    "In their first court appearance since being charged last week, Abdallah Saad Magar, 69, Aziz Magdi, 53, and Mark Brian Debowski, 50, were not required to plead to charges that they inflated enrolments at the Australian Islamic College in Perth to gain millions of dollars in extra funding from both state and federal governments..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Maths findings no surprise
      
      "It came as no surprise to see the National Numeracy Review report a parlous state of maths education in the nation’s schools ("In summary, maths is too simple”, 12-13/7).

      " The quality of maths and English teaching has been in a slow downward spiral for decades, but the rate is accelerating now that these subjects are being taught by people whose own basic skills are inadequate. This decline will become irremediable unless drastic action is taken very soon.

      "High-quality remedial teaching to teachers and the return of curriculums to addressing the elements of their subjects would seem to be the absolute minimal requirements."
      
      Michael D. Kellock, Foster, Vic
      
      

    • "Kevin Donnelly fights an admirable rear-guard action for the conservatives, but confining new technologies to the teacher-centred model of education is analogous to putting a rocket on a horse ("Don’t leave the kids alone”, Inquirer 12-13/7).

      "The power of technology is being constrained to work alongside a curriculum resolutely fixed in the teaching practices of an earlier age—instruction, memory skills and dexterity with pen and paper. How worthwhile is teaching and testing for knowledge that can be obtained from a quick Google search?

      "The conversation we should be having is about new relationships between teachers and learners and between what happens in school, home, and the community.

      "However, I endorse Donnelly’s claim that those responsible for developing curriculum must listen to classroom teachers about what does and does not work, and what best meets the needs of students."
      
      Cameron Paterson, North Sydney, NSW
      
      

    • "Self-directed learning with facilitators has always been in the altogether, but those in thrall to curriculum emperors can’t see it.

      "Imagine learning soccer, or any new skill other than the basics, by self-directed learning ... 22 kids playing 22 different ball games at once looks cute when they are little, but so does Brownian motion.

      "Student-centred, personalised learning doesn’t and can’t happen in sport, where talent (tall poppies) is praised and the good, the bad and the indifferent quickly sorted into different teams and levels.

      "Why is it so difficult and wrong to do this in schools? It doesn’t protect the less well-endowed from stress. All schoolkids know who is brainy and who is a duffer—even the duffers know. I was one."
      
      Howard Dewhirst, Burleigh Heads, Qld
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • $50,000 to leave classroom
    by Farrah Tomazin, Education Editor
    
    "Unhappy teachers could get up to $50,000 to leave the classroom and find another job under radical plans designed to regenerate Victoria's teaching workforce.

    "In a move that has sparked concerns about value for money, the State Government is considering paying teachers tens of thousands of dollars to help them leave the profession if they have become disengaged and no longer want to work in schools.

    "The scheme will be modelled on a similar program offered by the Queensland Government. Teachers with more than 10 years' service could volunteer for payouts of up to $50,000 to move into other fields.

    "To be eligible, teachers were required to meet criteria, such as demonstrating a "shortage of contemporary teaching skills", must not resume work in a school again once they had received the payment, and ensuring that any workers' compensation claims had been settled.

    "The Victorian Government has committed to a similar program as part of its education blueprint. The so-called "exit strategies" also form part of the Government's $2 billion wage deal with teachers, which was signed off by the education union earlier this year.

    "The Age believes that $50,000 is being considered as a benchmark by senior education officials. Queensland's Career Change program, set up in 2002, issued grants to 1700 teachers.

    "Australian Education Union branch president Mary Bluett said she supported the Victorian program on the basis that it was voluntary, and would provide teachers with career advice."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Teachers 'fear' smart students
    by Caroline Milburn
    
    "Too many teachers fear having very bright students in class because they feel ill-equipped to deal with them, according to a visiting campaigner on gifted children.

    "Rosemary Cathcart, one of New Zealand's leading educators in the field of gifted education, says their lack of confidence is caused by a weakness in the way teachers are trained. Most undergraduate courses do not include gifted education as a routine part of teacher training.

    "The reality is that most gifted children are going to spend most of their time in regular classrooms, especially at primary school," says Mrs Cathcart, who is in Australia to speak at the Australian Association for the Education of Gifted and Talented national conference in Hobart.

    "But because teachers do not have gifted education built into their basic training they will have a limited understanding and recognition of gifted children. I've had a teacher say to me, 'That child must be gifted because her handwriting is so neat,' and another has said, 'We can't let that boy join the gifted program because he's too naughty'.

    "We haven't prepared teachers well enough... we need to equip them with the skills to help these children."

    "In Australia, a 2001 Senate inquiry into the education of gifted children found teachers were poorly trained to cater for highly able students, estimated to represent between 5% and 10% of all students. The inquiry found many gifted children were suffering from under-achievement, boredom and psychological distress because their needs were not being met at school.

    "It recommended all state and territory education departments should require teaching degree courses to include at least one semester unit on gifted children, including how to identify them.

    "Mrs Cathcart, a former teacher who now runs an education consultancy, led a successful campaign in New Zealand to get the government to acknowledge the special needs of gifted children. Education policy was changed to include a new regulation that simply says all schools are required to identify and provide for their gifted students. The initiative included extra funding for advisers to work with New Zealand schools and a handbook to be sent to all schools.

    "In Victoria, education department policy documents include the gifted under the umbrella of special needs students. But peak parent groups say the wording is so confusing few schools realise that gifted children fall into the special-needs category.

    "The 2001 Senate report acknowledged the problem and recommended all state and territory education department policies make it clear when they refer to special needs that it includes giftedness. Rhonda Collins, a Victorian parent involved in gifted education lobby groups, says scant progress has been made since the 2001 inquiry and parents hope the newly created National Curriculum Board will introduce a coherent policy.

    "The 12-member board, established by the Federal Government, is devising a national curriculum, from kindergarten through to the end of high school, for English, maths, history and the sciences.

    "It's an opportune time for the board to formally recognise gifted as special needs," Ms Collins says. "If it does that it will make it clear that this group of children, through no fault of their own, through a genetic predisposition, require a differentiated curriculum in all schools.

    "Giftedness occurs across all socio-economic groups but schools are not finding these children in ethnic groups or in Koori groups. Schools tend to still think of gifted children as being white Anglo-Saxons from the eastern suburbs. The focus is on performance instead of the child."

    "Mrs Cathcart says Victoria's decision to expand the SEAL scheme, a program aimed at bright students in government secondary schools, was a welcome development because research showed it was crucial for gifted children to share regular activities with other talented children. "Otherwise they can feel alienated in the classroom and they can shut down from expressing their ideas, even with a good teacher who tries to differentiate material for them."

    "She tells teachers that having a gifted child in the classroom is a bonus and strategies to engage them also enhance the learning of other students.

    "A lot of teachers think that having gifted children in the class means an immense amount of extra work or they can feel threatened if they think the child might ask them a question they don't know the answer to," she says. "I tell teachers not to be afraid of working with these children... there are simple strategies, such as introducing unexpected elements into a lesson, that children will pick up on. We have the opportunity to engage with minds that bring a different kind of freshness and new ideas to our lessons."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Vexed about sex
    by Denise Ryan
    
    "These are the facts of life that will make many parents cringe. Most young people in years 10 and 12 at Australian high schools have experienced some form of sexual activity. Twenty six per cent of year 10 students have had sexual intercourse, rising to just under 50% of year 12 students.

    "A third of sexually active year 12 students have had sex without a condom and 57% have had oral sex (56% of males and 58% of females).

    "You might think these statistics couldn't possibly apply to your teenager. But research by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University indicates that many teenagers are not as innocent as their parents think..."

    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Cheating - and the art of survival
    by Tammy Mills
    
    "Paul can't live at home any more. The 21-year-old doesn't speak to his parents and they don't speak to him. Frankly, his parents were more than happy to see the back of their youngest son when he moved out of home.

    "This, as far as Centrelink knows, is what is happening in Paul's home life. But it's all a lie.

    "The university student has been cheating the Centrelink system for two years. Paul* and his parents weaved this elaborate fantasy to gain access to Youth Allowance. "It was pretty easy," he says.

    "Paul, who moved to inner-city Melbourne from a rural town to study, filled out a few forms, got his parents to fill out more forms, then a family friend, acting as a neutral bystander, vouched for Paul's "situation".

    "I just had to say that I don't talk to my parents any more and they don't support me," he says.

    "Paul is just one of many students who are committing welfare fraud to receive the allowance..."

    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Literacy and numeracy for all: Liberals
    
    "The State Liberals are promising to create a smarter Tasmania, where all students can read and write.

    "The Liberal leader, Will Hodgman, has already begun campaigning ahead of the 2010 state election and provided a taste of his vision at the state Liberal conference in Launceston on the weekend.

    "He blames the Labor Government for allowing Tasmania students to fall behind the rest of the country in literacy and numeracy, and wants to introduce smaller class sizes and extra help for students who fall behind.

    "Mr Hodgman says a Liberal Government would also introduce performance pay for teachers and extra help for student who fall behind.

    "Enabling every Tasmanian student to be able to, at least, read and write in line with relevant nation standards, at the very least," he said.

    "The Education Union's Leanne Wright doubts 100 per cent literacy could be achieved.

    "It's a very big claim to make and I'm surprised that anyone would make a commitment of 100 percent," she said.

    "Certainly there have been big efforts made to improve literacy and numeracy over the last few years and I'm not convinced that every child will be able to reach that level of success."

    "Mrs Wright says the union would not back the liberal leader's plans to bring in performance-based pay for teachers as part of an education overhaul.

    "The union certainly doesn't support performance based pay, it hasn't been successful in other countries and it doesn't seem to improve results,

    "It's very subjective and it's often not on a level playing field as teachers cannot choose which students they have in their classes."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

  • Union warns of teacher shortage in remote communities
    
    "The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) says there could be a staff shortage in remote Indigenous communities because of the State Government's welfare reform system.

    "If families do not send their children to school, the new Family Responsibilities Commission can quarantine welfare payments.

    "The scheme starts today at Aurukun, Hopevale, Coen and Mossman Gorge in far north Queensland.

    "QTU spokesman Steve Ryan says about 50 per cent of Indigenous children were not going to school in the Aurukun community, south of Rocky Point.

    "Then it means a very big increase in enrolments for that particular school and perhaps some of the others," he said.

    "The concerns there of course is, will there be enough teachers to teach them.

    "Students who haven't been at school for sometime will require quite a degree of assistance in terms of literacy and numeracy which obviously requires more teachers on the ground."

    "The Government says schools will be appropriately resourced to cope with an increase in enrolments."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

  • New action to protect children with allergic reactions
    
    

    New laws enforcing safety standards to deal with life-threatening allergies comes into force in Victorian schools and children's centres today.

  • Union says parental literacy plan will fail
    
    

    The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) has criticised a State Government plan to offer literacy classes to parents.
    
    
    

Tuesday 15 July

• The Australian
  
  
  • Students to get taste of military life (update from Monday 14th July)
    
    The Australian Defence Force is planning to open the nation's army, navy and air force bases to high school work experience students in a bid to arrest the crisis in recruitment.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Aide sues school over 'violent' pupil
    Peter Gregory
    
    "A teacher's aide who says she has been unable to work for almost five years after restraining an "aggressive and violent" student is suing a Catholic primary school.

    "Margaret Isabelle Rees, 50, said she suffered physical and psychological injury on June 13, 2003, while working at the Lumen Christi Primary School at Delacombe, near Ballarat.

    "Documents lodged at the Supreme Court said Ms Rees suffered injuries to her neck, back and right shoulder and developed depression.

    "They said she had been unable to work since July 25, 2003.

    "Ms Rees has claimed compensation for lost earnings and unspecified damages as a result of the school's alleged negligence.

    "She said it ignored her requests for help to adequately control aggressive, violent, student behaviour and failed to take heed of the unidentified student's conduct.

    "It was alleged the school failed to comply with occupational health and safety standards and to adequately train its then principal to properly direct Ms Rees.

    "According to a statement of claim, Ms Rees had been working at the school as an integrated teacher's aide for less than two years when she was injured. She was earning $265 net per week but was said to have been ready to work full-time, increasing her net weekly income to about $500.

    "In its defence to the claim, the school acknowledged that Ms Rees had alleged acute stress and a right shoulder injury in separate claim forms, but it denied negligence.

    "It also denied she suffered injury when restraining a violent and aggressive child, and the specific breaches of duty claimed by her.

    "According to its website, Lumen Christi has 267 students, after opening in 1990 with 73.

    "Ms Rees' statement of claim seeks a trial before judge and jury in Warrnambool. No date has been fixed for hearing."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • $1m funding deal for school computers
    
    "The ACT Government says the Commonwealth has agreed to pay a $1 million funding shortfall to install more computers in Canberra schools.

    "Some states are refusing to apply for the second round of the Federal Government's computers in schools program because they say the running costs are too high.

    "ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr previously held concerns but says Canberra schools will apply for the next round to receive another 1,200 computers.

    "In terms of the ACT it's something in the order of $900,000 and $1 million a year so our ask is fairly small and the Commonwealth have indicated that they will be paying for the implementation of their election commitment," he said.

    "We are able to slot in new computers into our schools in a much easier manner than perhaps other jurisdictions are experiencing and that's because we've already done the behind the scenes work to enable a program such as this to roll out quite easily."
    

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

  • Federal Govt dedicates $90m to school trade training
    
    "The Federal Government has announced it will spend $90 million to improve trade training in schools.

    "Thirty-four high schools will receive the funding in the first phase of the Government's Trade Training in Schools election promise.

    "The Brisbane-based Aviation High School will receive $1.4 million to build a new workshop, which will be used by 16 other Queensland schools.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard says the funding will mean more secondary school students will be qualified in trades when they leave school.

    "We wanted to make sure that education and skills formation were part of the same process we wanted to make sure our high schools were linked with our industries," she said.

    "It's all about real training for real jobs."
    

    From ABC Online at link
    
    
    

Wednesday 16 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Education Department bureaucrats cost taxpayers $70 a head for dinner
    by Amanda Banks
    
    "Senior Education Department bureaucrats dined at the luxury Vines Resort in the Swan Valley last night, with taxpayers footing the $1700 restaurant bill as teachers continue a bitter battle for a better pay deal.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the extravagance of the dinner sent the wrong message and was likely to incense teachers further.

    "Education Department deputy director-general of schools Margery Evans said directors from across State and senior members the department executive regularly met during school holidays.
    
    "Because our directors' workplaces are spread from Broome to Esperance , it is important that we take the opportunity to meet when possible to talk through the future of education Ms Evans said. There would be conferences today.

    "The dinner for 25 staff works out to almost $70 a head.

    "Ms Evans said staff who travelled more than 50km to the meeting could claim an accommodation allowance.

    "Teachers and the department have hit a stalemate in negotiations over an enterprise bargaining agreement that ended in March. A new pay deal is being arbitrated in the WA Industrial Relations Commission."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Education goes from impasse to paralysis (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    "Here we go again. Once more, we have the spectacle of teachers declining (at least until the last possible moment) to renew their membership of the WA College of Teaching. It is a farce now becoming an annual event.

    "The teachers involved may indeed (as WACOT claims) be leaving the profession; that is, in fact, all too likely. They may also be terminally disaffected with a system which no longer works, and with the idea that a more or less useless quango should demand compulsory membership.
    
    "Teachers and the Government are now in a state of more or less permanent mutual hostility. Despite sound advice from everyone - the Government's own Twomey report, the Business Council of Australia and other business and employer organisations, various think-tanks the Government refuses to reach agreement over a reasonable increase in teachers' pay.
    
    "Teachers, understandably enough, point to the ability of State parliamentarians to have increase after increase (4.5 per cent in the last determination); the times when teachers and backbenchers had roughly the same remuneration is long since past. Money is only one part of a teacher's professional reward; but at a time when a teacher can chuck it all in and go north to be a truck driver, more money is indeed badly needed to keep numbers up.
    
    "With more teachers leaving and fewer young graduates choosing to make teaching their chosen profession, numbers are getting to the point where the public education system will soon breakdown entirely. The scheme to entice retired teachers back into the workforce was an utter failure.
    
    "Research has shown that older teachers are an indispensable attribute of successful schools, yet they are now leaving as soon as they can. No real incentives, in cash or in conditions, have been offered to them. As shortages increase, the department responds by reducing the number of subjects offered in our high schools, casually denying students access to the widest range of careers.
    
    "Although it has not received much attention in this State, education for Aboriginals in the north of our State is shockingly inadequate.
    
    "Conditions in classrooms in many schools are getting steadily worse: witness last week's story in The West Australian that teachers and other school staff were assaulted or abused more than 600 times in the past year - an unreliable figure, since many teachers no longer bother reporting such incidents, knowing that nothing will be done about them.
    
    "In many schools, parents no longer support teachers' decisions. The absence of good parenting is becoming a crucial factor in behavioural problems. There are credible stories circulating that teachers are now having to cope with children in Years 1 and 2 who are not even toilet-trained.

    "Even in good schools, students tend to avoid the harder options, such as maths and physics, despite the dumbing down of such options. The mismatch between what employers and universities need and what schools offer is growing."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • No merger but unis debate systems

    The University of Canberra and rural NSW's Charles Sturt University have confirmed they are exploring the establishment of a US-style "system university".
    
    

  • Greer slams UK over cuts to scholarship program

    Outspoken feminist academic and writer Germaine Greer has attacked Britain for slashing a university scholarship program that has drawn hundreds of Australian students to England.
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herals
  
  
  • The brutal reality about halls of higher earning

    The university, says John Ralston Saul, is "where civilisation's knowledge is divided up into exclusive territories", where academics daily invent "dialects sufficiently hermetic" to preclude internecine seepage. Each faculty, discipline or research team thus becomes a kind of Da Vinci Code cryptex, and university politics an arcane strain of gang warfare.

     

• The Age
  
  
  • Schools 'short-changed' on tech wings
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Rudd Government has been accused of backing away from its election promise to build or upgrade trade technical wings across the nation's 2650 secondary schools.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced that 96 schools would share more than $90 million in the first round of funding under its trade training centres program.

    "But the Government came under fire as it emerged that many recipients were being funded as "clusters", or groups of schools, rather than individually.

    "Wodonga Senior Secondary College, for instance, received more than $8 million to build a trade wing for engineering, electrotechnology and automotive subjects.

    "But the training centre will also be used by nearby schools in Mount Beauty, Tallangata and Beechworth, rather than each school getting its own funding for buildings and upgrades.

    "Teachers and the Federal Opposition accused the Government of departing fromits promise, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had said would result in new centres and upgrades "in all of Australia's 2650 secondary schools".

    "Kevin Rudd promised there would be a trades training centre in every single one of Australia's 2650 secondary schools," said Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith.

    "The reality of what's being provided comes nothing close to this . . . somuch for an education revolution."

    "Ms Gillard defended the policy. "Many schools choose to come together in a cluster arrangement to maximise the value of the trades training opportunity that they want to offer students in each of their schools," she said.

    "Of the 96 schools selected, 62% are government schools and 38% are private. Ms Gillard said almost a third of the centres were located in rural or remote areas, and nearly half were in schools with a "significant indigenous student population".

    "The program, under which secondary schools can apply for funding of between $500,000 and $1.5 million, was created to tackle skills shortages and boost the number of students completing year 12 or an equivalent.

    "But critics claim the program lacks sufficient funding and does not take into account the extra teachers required.

    "$2.5 billion over 10 years is clearly a modest investment and won't offer a long-term solution to skills shortages," said Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

    "The real issues lie in planning and provision through guaranteed funding for TAFEs."

    "The second round of funding will open on July 23."
    

    From The Age at link

  
  

  • Robust economy proves boon for graduates

Last year saw the highest percentage of university bachelor graduates in full-time work in more than a decade.




• Overseas Newspapers
  
  
  • Teachers win right to frisk pupils
    
    Teachers are to be given the power to search pupils for drugs and alcohol in a fresh crackdown on unruly behaviour in schools, the government signalled today.
    
    
    
  • Unruly pupils drive new teachers out of profession
    
    "Disruptive pupils are causing an exodus of young teachers from the profession in search of more family time and less red tape, research indicates.

    "Four in ten new teachers quit the profession within two years because of unruly pupils and excessive workloads, the research from the General Teaching Council (GTC) suggests.

    "The first major study into why young teachers are fleeing the profession comes after official figures last month suggested pupil behaviour is at an all time low, with 2,200 disruptive children sent home every day.

    "The Government has blamed parents who forbid the school from disciplining their children for disruptive classrooms; it will next week outline plans for dealing with rowdy pupils..."

    Full story in The Times Online at link

     

Thursday 17 July

• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Six-figure pay push for teachers
    by Emma MacDonald, Education Reporter

    "The ACT's best teachers could earn six-figure salaries within three years under an ambitious plan to halt a skills shortage and increase the status of the profession.
    
    "ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr will meet senior departmental bureaucrats today to begin implementing incentives for teachers to undertake professional development, teach unpopular classes and move into leadership positions within their schools as part of a $3.8million quality teaching budget commitment.

    "Mr Barr will hold discussions with University of Canberra over potential scholarships to lure Canberra's best and brightest into a teaching degree.

    "Mr Barr said yesterday the ACT faced a crisis if nothing was done to increase teacher numbers or to foster a new generation of school leaders given a third of the territory's principals are due to retire in the next five years.

    "He also said it was clear that cash incentives were required to increase the number of teachers in the shortage areas of maths, science and language, as well as providing bonuses for those who managed classes that were difficult or disadvantaged.

    "These issues will be the subject of discussion by a panel of national education and management experts who will arrive in the ACT today for a three-day workshop on improving teacher quality and leadership.

    "Mr Barr said increasing professional standards and increasing salaries went hand in hand when it came to improving the status of teaching.

    ''I think it is time that our best teachers hit the six-figure mark when it comes to pay,'' he said.

    ''I believe, in the case of our best teachers and the contribution they make, that earning $100,000 is only fair.''

    "Beginning teachers in the ACT currently earn about $52,000, rising to about $75,000 for teachers with 10 or more years of experience.

    "Mr Barr said a six-figure salary could be achieved through a combination of ACT Government and Commonwealth bonuses for teaching excellence. The ACT Government will begin negotiating a new pay deal for teachers in January, ahead of the current enterprise bargaining agreement which runs out next June.

    "A new wage rise comparable to the last 12 per cent three-year deal would boost salaries and Mr Barr said the agreement was likely to include incentives for professional development.

    "Federal Labor has also flagged bonuses of up to $10,000 for the best teachers in the states and territories.

    "The Ministerial Council for Education, Training and Youth Affairs is conducting a review of pre-service education and teacher preparation; incentives to address inadequate supply of teachers in specialised areas such as science, maths, language, and difficult students; the quality of entrants to teaching; and rewards, incentives and career structures for existing staff.

    "The first working group discussing the issue will meet later this month.

    "Mr Barr said the ACT would not be the only jurisdiction pushing the Commonwealth to help fund better qualified teaching workforces.

    ''We are all facing the same issues, of needing more teachers, needing them to stay in the profession and needing to provide incentives for them to teach in areas of shortage and in disadvantaged schools.''

    "The ACT's workforce already risked being picked off by other jurisdictions which were aggressively hiring such as Western Australia.

    "The Australian Education Union's ACT branch secretary, Penny Gilmour, said there was growing recognition that teachers deserved more money.

    ''Even the Business Council recently reported the need to pay teachers six figures, so to have the Business Council and the union singing from the same hymn sheet means a lot.''

    "Teachers had been sceptical about performance pay in the past because it had been tied by the Coalition government to the results of student literacy and numeracy test scores.

    ''We definitely support a performance pay scheme which is regulated by the achievement of externally measured standards ... and we would not want quotas included,'' Ms Gilmour said.

    "She noted no OECD country had trained a sufficient number of teachers to replace its ageing workforce and Australia needed to get serious about the problem.

    ''In the ACT in particular, we risk our workforce being picked off by other states and our superannuation regime also compounds the problem by encouraging early retirement.''

    "Many teachers were burnt out and were not offering themselves for contract or relief work which added further pressure to the system."
    

    From The Canberra Times at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Fund management would hit learning council's standing (update from 16th July)
    by Guy Healy

    "Transferring the federal Government's flawed $227 million learning and teaching performance fund to the Australian Learning and Teaching Council would compromise the vital work of that body, commentators have warned.

    "Kerri-Lee Harris, from the University of Melbourne's Centre for the Study of Higher Education, said dramatic changes in the standing of universities in the competitive fund might represent mere statistical noise, not genuine shifts in performance.

    "The council had built a significant and positive profile in the sector and this would be seriously compromised if it were forced to take responsibility for the fund, Dr Harris said.

    "Centre director Richard James agreed, saying the fund was "a flawed concept". The council was doing a good job and its work would not be enhanced if it became a performance measurement agency as well, he said..."
    

    Full story in The Australian at link

• Standards on the slippery slope
  

  Aban Contractor reports on the UK debate over university entrance scores.

  "The British public, especially parents, are bombarded daily by stories, albeit mostly anecdotal of the drop in standards in schools and at the nations universities.

  "In the United Kingdom children under 11 are being tested at unprecedented levels. Standards, or so the government says, are improving. Gordon Brown's Labour government also boasts more children are staying on at school to take the General Certificate of Secondary Education and Advanced level examinations and posting better results than ever before.

  "Indeed, the number of students now scoring an A in those examinations is so high in some subjects that everyone from parents to school principals to university administrators _ and more than the odd newspaper editor _ have cried foul and decreed that standards must be slipping.

  "Imperial College London with Oxford and Cambridge universities part of the prestigious ``golden triangle'' certainly says so and is trying out a new entrance exam to help discriminate between the thousands of applicants with A grades in every A level.

  "At present some universities ask those applying for the ultra-competitive areas of law and medicine to sit an entrance test.

  "But what Imperial is proposing is a first. From 2010 it wants all students seeking to study there to sit an entrance exam, because it no longer believes the A level provides a viable means of selection.

  "Grade inflation at A level last year meant that one in four A level marks was a grade A and 10 per cent of students were awarded at least threes As.

  "The rector of Imperial, Sir Richard Sykes, told the Independent Schools Councils annual conference in London that all applicants came with four or five A levels and grade inflation had destroyed their use in selecting undergraduates.

  'Top institutions have great difficulty separating out the best students, the BBC reported him saying earlier this month.

  "As a consequence, Imperial is trialling an entrance test to assess general intelligence and creativity that it would like to see in place by 2010 at its own institution and perhaps across the sector.

  "That hopefully will become a national system if that was seen to be successful for selecting students, Sir Richard said.

  "A spokeswoman for Universities UK said admissions procedures were for individual universities to decide as autonomous institutions and, as a consequence, UUK would not comment on one of its own members decisions in this area.

  "UUK had, however, conducted some stock taking research on where the sector is in terms of admissions procedures and this would include some information on admissions tests. The briefing paper will be published later on this year.

  "The government has made efforts to combat grade inflation. Dr Ken Boston, the former director-general of education in NSW and now the head of Britain's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is charged with running the reforms. Among the many he has implemented is the A-star grade A level.

  "We are making (courses) more demanding, more difficult, he told HES. "In the political jargon of the day, ministers wanted stretch and challenge, and that's what we are giving them.''

  "As a consequence, fewer structured questions and more extended writing was introduced. And the A-star grade will only be awarded to those who score 90 or above.

  "But determining standards is not an exact science. As Sir Richard concedes, 40 per cent or Imperial's undergraduate intake comes from the 7 per cent of students who are privately schooled.

  "Like all education policy makers, he knows that most of the remaining 93 per cent being taught in the nations publicly funded schools are at a disadvantage.

  "The reality was bought home this month when it was revealed that about 60,000 of the highest achievers in those schools failed to reach university every year.

  "A spokeswoman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said higher Education institutes admissions policies were a matter for the sector.

  "The Government does not want to see a proliferation of admissions tests for tests sake and would be concerned if additional tests were to impose burdens that particularly affect applicants from under-represented groups or schools.

  "We believe that the reforms of the A level will provide higher education institutions with the greater differentiation they have been seeking to enable them to select from a growing pool of highly qualified candidates.''
  

  From The Australian at link

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Money still talks at university - to a certain degree
    by Alan Robson

    "There are two things commonly said about universities. Some will say that, these days, it is so easy for people to get into university that anyone and everyone goes to get a degree. On the other hand, some say universities are elitist, and that only the rich are able to attend. It appears that neither view is correct.

    "In a recent Universities Australia study which I was pleased to be able to chair, we looked more closely at participation and equity in higher education. We confirmed that people of low socio-economic status are about one-third as likely as people from high socio-economic backgrounds to participate in higher education. And the share of places for people from low socio-economic status backgrounds - about 15 per cent of places - has remained virtually unchanged for 15 years despite the expansion of access to higher education.

    "We also found that people from these backgrounds are particularly under-represented in professional fields of study for which there is the most competitive entry. They are less likely to study law, medicine, dentistry and architecture, and more likely to study arts or science. Similarly, these students comprise less than 10 per cent of postgraduate students..."
    

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

• Teachers to protest at minister's office
  AAP

  "South Australian teachers will take their dispute with the state government over pay and conditions to the Adelaide electorate office of Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith.

  "Teachers plan to rally outside the minister's office in support of their demands for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years along with extra investment to recruit and retain staff and reduce class sizes.

  "So far the government has offered a pay increase of 9.75 per cent over the period..."
  

  Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers' union happy with wage negotiations
    

    "The Australian Education Union says progress has been made during the school holidays which could end the pay dispute between Northern Territory teachers and the Government.

    "Just before teachers went on holidays, the commissioner for public employment boosted the Government's offer to a 12 per cent pay increase over three years, with a maximum class size of 26.

    "President of the Territory branch of the Education Union, Nadine Williams, says the offer is getting closer to the acceptable mark and it will be discussed by teachers when they go back to work next week..."
    

    Full story at ABC News at link

• Principals concerned federal computers might be a burden
  

  "There are concerns a Federal initiative to put extra computers in Tasmanian schools may be more trouble than its worth.

  "23 public and independent schools in Tasmania have successfully applied for extra computers in the first round of the scheme.

  "The State Government is confident the extra machines will be a boon not a burden for students.

  "But the Tasmanian Principals Association's vice-president, Sheree Vertigan, says schools will need support..."
  

  Full story at ABC News at link

• Govt allots $6m for Trade Training Centre
  

  "The Broken Hill High School will receive almost $6 million to build a Trade Training Centre as part of the Federal Government's plan to address skills shortages.

  "The funding will also benefit Willyama High School and the Central Schools in Wilcannia, Menindee and Ivanhoe as cluster schools in the project.

  "The School Principal Darrell Ward says the funding will go towards new buildings and facilities at all five schools to bring them all up to industry standard.

  "The money will be spent on building a dedicated metals engineering school at Broken Hill High School, a dedicated construction facility at Willyama High School," he said.

  "Refurbishing both the kitchens to industry standard at both those schools, supplying the three central schools with a kitchen as well as a module including video conferencing equipment so we can liaise with the central schools."
  

  From ABC News at link

Friday 18 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • No-school no-dole for families of truants [Front Page]
    by Kate Campbell
    
    "Welfare payments to more than 1000 Perth families could be suspended if their children skip school repeatedly under a radical Federal Government move which has sparked a warning from the State Opposition and a welfare group that the scheme could further disadvantage the vulnerable and exacerbate the truancy problem.
    
    "Under the pilot scheme unveiled yesterday, welfare payments will be suspended to parents in the Cannington district who fail to ensure their children go to school, which could have an impact on 11 government and three private schools from the start of next year.
    
    "About 1050 families in the Cannington area are depended on welfare.
    
    "Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin said in Perth that Centrelink would soon have the power to demand that parents tell where their children were enrolled and to temporarily withhold welfare payments if the parents, after receiving help from the school and Centrelink, neglected their responsibility.
    
    "Parents would have up to 13 weeks to ensure their children attended school regularly and if they were successful their payments would be reimbursed in full.
    
    "The scheme is the first to be sued in any Australian metropolitan area.
    
    "We make these welfare payments available to parents to help them care for their children. Caring for your children very much includes making sure they go to school on a regular basis, Ms. Macklin said.
    
    "She said the trial would not focus just on Aboriginal students. In 2005, the Federal coalition government dumped a successful, near-identical scheme in Halls Creek because of concerns about the legality of the programme, instigated by the school.
    
    "State education minister at the time Ljiljiana Ravlich had branded the initiative a "blunt instrument" which punished those already disadvantaged.
    
    "But yesterday, WA Education Minister Mark McGowan said the initiative would trigger real change and help break the cycle of welfare dependency.
    
    "Mr. McGowan said the Cannington school district had a 92 per cent attendance rate, which was consistent with the State's norm, and stressed that only a small number of students were serial truants.
    
    "A spokeswoman for Mr. McGowan said legislation allowing the sharing of information between agencies that had been passed since 2005 had fixed a legal problem with the earlier scheme.
    
    "The Federal Government is also set to trial a welfare quarantine scheme in Cannington and the East Kimberley, which allow the Department of Child Protection to recommend to Centrelink that it set aside part of negligent parents' welfare payments to cover essentials such as food and accommodation. Welfare Rights and Advocacy Service executive officer Kate Beaumont feared the truancy scheme could inflict more financial pain on struggling families and possibly push them to the brink of homelessness.
    
    "She was also worried the welfare suspension period could extend beyond 13 weeks in some cases.
    
    "The difficulty is there's the potential that a family's income might be completely reduced down to nothing and how does that actually help to encourage to get children to school?" she said.
    "It doesn't necessarily fit in with some of the social inclusion agenda (of the Government) and also around homelessness. People could lose their accommodation because they're not getting income support payments."
    
    "Shadow State education minister Peter Collier said he was concerned that the punitive approach could further alienate children from their parents and the school system.
    "He supported the initiative as a last resort but only if the proper support was put in place."

    From The West Australian
    
    

• Teachers' union to lift ban (page 10)
  
  "The State School Teachers Union has voted to lift its ban on implementing curriculum changes after an order in the Industrial Relations Commission.
  
  "The union had said it would refuse to implement about 30 Year 11 courses next year because the Education Department had not provided the resources or the time to prepare them.
  
  "Secretary Anne Gisborne said last night the matter would be pursued in the Industrial Magistrate's Court."
  

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

• Letters to the Editor (page 21)
  
  
  • Education: should State opt out?
    
    "Congratulations to Tony Rutherford for his informed and insightful column on the parlous state of education in WA (Education goes from impasse to paralysis, 16/7). He is absolutely right when he pillories the Government over its behaviour in the teachers' pay dispute.
    
    "However, it must be remembered that the other mob was just as bad when it was in government; this situation has been brewing for more than 15 years. Successive governments have viewed teachers' salaries as potentially dangerous recurrent expenditure; there are lots of teachers and, if you give them all a pay rise, that means that Eric has to fork out a lot of money!
    
    "The alternative view, which the politicians can see when in opposition, is that a well-paid, stable and highly skilled teaching workforce is an investment in Australia's future. If State governments can't recognise that and act responsibly in the national interest, then education should cease to be a State responsibility.
    
    "The flight of males from teaching began in the 1980's as salaries started to erode. Teaching is now women's work and we all know the implications of that for remuneration. However, now even the women are jacking up and getting employment elsewhere. In the scramble to get warm bodies in front of classes, what is happening to quality controls? Boys are under-achieving in schools but it doesn't really matter because they can earn a lot more than a teacher by working in the mining or construction industries.
    
    "We are reverting to a frontier mentality and there will be a terrible hangover when the boom-fuelled party is over. In the meantime, our international competitors are giving education an absolute priority."
    
    Jeff Horner, Shelley
    
    
    
  • Only solution
    
    "Tony Rutherford is to be complimented for his column. One gets the impression that he has been listening to teachers' concerns and cares about public education. This would be a great leap forward for the WA Government.
    
    "One could also be forgiven for thinking that all the parents who give a toss have already got their kids installed in private schools where education is good and teachers get respect, even if not fiscally. This is my only way of comprehending why the public school parents have not expressed political and ethical outrage on a titanic scale at the present state of affairs.
    
    "What to do now? The Government has abrogated any right, due to its ineptitude, to direct education in this State and has failed not only teachers but the students it claims to care about so much - and, of course, the parents. It needs to outsource education. Rutherford made some reference to this by way of starting from scratch after sacking all the parasites who cling to what semblance of imaginary importance they fantasise as still possessing despite their obvious impotence to change anything.
    
    "Create an independent body for the propagation of learning and close down the Education Department. It has lost the plot and it is blatantly the Carpenter Government's fault. It has collapsed on Mr. Carpenter's watch. The buck stops with him.
    
    "Here's an idea. Why not let WACOT do something useful: let it run education. It cannot do worse than this Government because the drover's dog cannot do worse. What an embarrassing and disgusting mess. What self-respecting government would let this State of affairs to continue? There may be the answer."
    
    R.J. Higgins, Dianella
    
    
    
  • Sorry Day
    
    "I'm a long-serving (40 years) teacher and I heartily endorse every word Tony Rutherford wrote. I have enjoyed my time in WA's beautiful schools, at times teaching in sheds and at one stage walking the kids to the local hall when accommodation was tight. Why did we put up with the conditions at the time? Because we loved the job, we felt valued and we felt part of the ongoing educational process.
    
    "For the past 10 years (OBE time) teachers have been ground down by incessant demands and had their legitimate concerns squashed by bureaucrats who have staked their reputations on this now reviled system. To get teachers back on side we need an acknowledgement by the department of the impact that this has had on teachers and administrators and our schools - if you like, they need to say "sorry". A decent wage rise and better working conditions will also help.
    
    "Thank you for your excellent column - it will be on the staff notice board on Monday."
    
    Rob Thompson, Manning
    
    
    
  • Tony Rutherford
    
    "I must congratulate Tony Rutherford for his insightful review of this malaise we call WA education.
    
    "I was particularly struck with his comment: "The chances that the Premier and his Minister will wake up tomorrow, decide to sack their bureaucrats and start all over again with a reformed school policy area too small even to be reckoned." Therein lies the problem. The musical chairs played between the Curriculum Council and DET ensure that the ideologues who are committed to the failed OBE fiasco are still calling the shots. As long as they control not only education, but obviously the minister himself, there is very little hope for the advancement of education in WA.
    
    Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
    
    
    
  • "I'm sick of reading the whines of teachers like Andrew Bell (Letters, 14/7) who do no more than state the bleeding obvious and flog the same dead horse. How about some meaningful debate on the real questions? Try the following for size.
    
    "Why haven't teachers received any pay rise in a year's campaigning? How have other government sectors and occupations managed to get theirs? Why have teachers' industrial agreements been so poor for so long? Why are good State school teachers going elsewhere? Why can't good replacements be found? Is it just money? Why have State schools lost 17,000 students to the private sector in the time this of this Government? Where are the letters from the community giving support for teachers' 20 per cent pay rise claim?
    
    "In the meantime, thank God for Tony Rutherford who presents the education "paralysis" in perspective.
    
    Rede Moulton, Bassendean
    
    
    
  • "Tony Rutherford once again attacks WACOT. Does he also believe that other compulsory registration authorities such as the Medical Board of WA, Dental Board of WA, Nurses Board of WA, Legal Practice Board and the Veterinary Surgeons' Board are all "useless quangos"?
    
    "The community expects, for example that doctors practising on patients should have their qualifications rigidly checked, be professionally competent, have a police clearance, be registered and engaged in ongoing professional learning: likewise, people teaching our children should also be registered by an authority and, importantly, one independent of stakeholders such as government, employers and unions."
    
    Brian Lindberg, chair of the board, Western Australian College of Teaching
    
    
    

• BBC News
  
  
  • 'Farce' warning on degree levels
    by Sean Coughlan
    
    'The lack of certainty over the value of university degrees is "descending into farce," says the chair of a committee of MPs investigating degree standards.

    "Phil Willis challenged the university standards watchdog, Peter Williams, about fears of inflated degree grades.
    
    "You're saying an institution can award as many firsts as it wants as long as it satisfies its own criteria of what a first means," said Mr Willis.
    
    "Mr Williams defended the need for universities' autonomy over degrees.
    
    "But Mr Williams, head of the Quality Assurance Agency, faced further scrutiny over how it was acceptable that universities could be assessed without objective comparisons with other institutions.
    
    "What value was there for employers, students or taxpayers in such an ambiguous system, MPs wanted to know.
    
    Outrage
    
    "There is no common definition of what a first is," Mr Williams told the House of Commons select committee on innovation, universities, science and skills.
    
    "The committee of MPs challenged the uncertainty about degree standards
    
    "There is no evidence of consistency between subjects or departments or between institutions," said the watchdog.
    
    "Evan Harris said there would be "outrage" if it were similarly discovered that A-levels from different awarding bodies were not of equal rigour or value.
    
    "The Oxford West MP challenged the idea that university autonomy was a valid reason for not having any comparability between universities' standards, when these were publicly-funded bodies.

    "Mr Williams repeated his criticism of the degree classification system which he says is no longer "fit for purpose" - and cautioned that degrees were not national courses or exams and that standards were individual to each institution..."

    Full story at BBC News at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • TAFE teachers threaten to strike
    by Andrew Trounson

    "Victoria's 14,000 public sector TAFE teachers yesterday doubled their pay claim to an immediate 20 per cent rise to keep pace with the pay deal won by teachers in May and signalled the start of strike action.

    "Frustrated that negotiations with TAFE directors have stretched out to 11 months, a council meeting of the Australian Education Union council will today endorse a one-day unprotected strike statewide on August 20.

    "The strike is aimed at putting pressure on the Victorian Government to intervene in the talks after the AEU rejected a call by TAFE directors for mediation before the Industrial Relations Commission.

    "So far the Government has stayed out of the negotiations, leaving it to the TAFE directors. But the directors have been constrained by the Government preventing them from offering more than a 3.25 per cent annual increase every year for the next four years unless accompanied by productivity gains.

    "Talks on productivity gains have persistently broken down. The AEU fears that the flexibility sought by directors in offering individual arrangements under the pay agreement will lead to more casual jobs that are less secure. "TAFE has to remain competitive with the school sector if they are going to retain teachers, especially in areas of skill shortages," such as in trades and healthcare, AEU Victorian branch secretary Mary Bluett told The Australian.

    "She said a third-year apprentice would earn more than the $62,788 a year maximum that a fully qualified TAFE trades teacher with six years' experience would earn.
    

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Top graduates for tough classrooms
    by Farrah Tomazin and Bridie Smith

    "Top university graduates would be aggressively recruited and given financial incentives to work in some of the nation's toughest classrooms, under Federal Government plans to boost teaching quality and revive interest in the profession. Education Minister Julia Gillard is also examining ways to track students and give parents unprecedented information on school performances in what she described as a "new era of transparency" for the public and private education systems.

    "With a third of serving teachers aged over 50 and university entry scores for teaching courses as low as 60, Ms Gillard last night called for the "urgent" creation of a national scheme to recruit talented graduates — from any field of study — to work in the most challenging schools.

    "We need to re-establish in Australia something that the labour movement has long recognised: that there is no higher vocational calling than teaching," said Ms Gillard, speaking at a John Button lecture in Melbourne last night.

    "She said she wanted to examine two contentious but successful international programs: the Teach First initiative in Britain, and the Teach for America scheme in the US.

    "Under these programs, graduates are aggressively recruited and offered financial incentives to teach in struggling schools. They get access to accelerated teacher training and intensive mentoring from business and community leaders, and sign on to work in the system for about two years.

    "State Education Minister Bronwyn Pike endorsed the idea last night, having signalled in December that she was considering the Teach First program for Victoria.

    "But teachers called for better wages to back the rhetoric.

    "We need to see the necessary respect and valuing of the profession … which doesn't happen with words alone," said Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

    "In a wide-ranging speech, Ms Gillard said she wanted more detailed school-by-school data showing the socio-economic make-up and numbers of disadvantaged children.

    The minister also:

    * Said perceptions of teaching would improve if top teachers were rewarded, in comments interpreted by some as another example of the Government's shift towards performance pay in schools.

    * Rejected suggestions that differences in student results could be explained solely by socio-economic status.

    * Said it was wrong to believe the education system could be divided into two groups: disadvantaged public schools and highly resourced non-government schools.

    "There are schools that struggle with limited resources, trying to serve disadvantaged communities, in both groups," she said.

    "I specifically reject the proposition that the only way to debate differential need in our school system is through the prism of the public-private divide."

    "Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair said he was "absolutely all for" collecting data on individual students to identify learning difficulties, but raised concerns about comparing schools.

    "We all know that you can't compare a Balwyn high school and a Broadmeadows high school because you have a completely different clientele," he said.

    "Shadow education minister Tony Smith said the Coalition's attempts, when in government, to reform the profession had been "consistently blocked by teachers' unions and state governments".
    

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Public schools go solar
    

    "The (Queensland) State Government has selected the first 10 public schools that will have solar panels installed under its Energy Efficiency Program.

    "The schools in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Charleville, Mt Isa and the Gold Coast will also be fitted with energy efficient light bulbs.

    "The Government says in the next three years more solar panels will be installed on the roofs of more than 1,200 schools."
    

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 July

• Opinion
  

  • Don’t implement courses that aren’t ready, says retired academic
    by Steve Kessell

    [Since writing this two weeks ago, the union has decided to lift the ban on the CoS. Given the fiasco of introducing English and other CoS before they were ready, this was a very unwise decision in my view. Steve Kessell]

    I rarely agree with the stance taken by the State School Teachers Union, but this time I believe they got it right: the new Year 11 courses of study are not ready to be implemented next year.

    This has nothing to do with the teachers’ pay claim or their protracted EBA arbitration in the IRC.

    There are two simple reasons why the courses should not proceed in February 2009:
    
    They are not ready; and

    Teachers will have to work massive amounts of unpaid overtime to get them anywhere near ready.

    The Curriculum Council has a history of attempting to introduce inadequately prepared new courses and forcing them upon reluctant teachers.

    Now it has added the threat that the old [tried and true TEE] courses will be “unaccredited”, while the new ones will have its stamp of approval.

    This is precisely what the Council’s Acting CEO, David Axworthy, tried to do 18 months ago, and this heavy-handed tactic failed when Education Minister Mark McGowan insisted that teacher juries evaluate the courses prior to their implementation.

    The juries sent nearly every course back to the Council for extensive rewriting.

    Four new OBE courses (including English) were introduced prematurely, and there have been massive problems with all of them.

    I am disappointed that the Council has resorted to such heavy-handed tactics again, but it really is a facile exercise.

    I just can’t see Alan Carpenter going into an election by telling parents: “Sorry, none of your kids in that cohort will graduate or be eligible for uni, because the Curriculum Council has decided to be stubborn again.”

    As teacher Marko Vojkovic posted on the PLATO Forum recently:

    “Once again, the educational theorists hold sway. They think the courses are 'ready' when the rationale and the pedagogical philosophy are in place.

    “But back in the real world, the whole shooting match is nowhere near ready.

    “In true prima donna style, the Curriculum Council has arrived at the theatre and announced they are ready to perform.

    “But the tickets haven't been printed, the venue hasn't been booked, the sets haven't been made, nobody knows where the key is, and the rest of the cast don't know their lines.
    
    “But the show must go on..”

    
    Here is an example of what teachers claim is missing from the new physics and chemistry courses:

    No textbook, lab manual, revision guide, problems books, bank of problems and exam questions covering the new content, list of new equipment required for experiments, comprehensive programs (both sequential and concurrent), actual teaching time allocation, final assessment structure, TISC requirements for graduation, rules for TER calculation, or final exam format.

    Other than that, those two courses are “ready”!

    As an academic who has taught curriculum development, I am very disappointed that the Curriculum Council refuses to follow some basic tenets of new course development.

    These include:

    • The provision of all support materials, including textbooks, problem books, lesson plans, revision guides, assessment guides, test question database, and time allocations, not just an incomplete rough outline;
    • Trials of all new courses in a small number of schools prior to their state-wide release;
    • A suitable lead time – usually 12 months – from teachers’ receipt of these materials to implementation; and
    • A clear separation of accreditation from course development.

    Curriculum Council Chairman Professor Bill Louden has stated publicly that all of these things need to happen. To date, none of them have.

    As I stressed in an opinion piece in The West Australian nearly two years ago [Changes have not solved OBE problem: Major issues remain despite Government compromises, Steve Kessell says, 14 July 2006]:

    “The lack of such an independent evaluation is a major reason WA education is in a mess now: the same folk who write the courses evaluate and accredit them.”

    The Council’s accreditation of its own courses is a bit like letting mining companies set their own environmental impact requirements [or putting the fox in charge of the henhouse].

    Yes, the teacher juries had their input. But earlier this year, English teachers attending Council-run professional development were told by Council staff that they did not feel obliged to include all of the changes the jury requested [despite the minister’s promises to the contrary]. Rather, they saw them as “guidelines”.

    The Council’s current CEO, David Wood, maintains that “almost all the English teacher jury’s recommendations had been implemented” [Changes to OBE English ‘are ignored’, The West Australian, 23 June 2008]. Many English teachers disagree.

    But contrary to Mr Woods’ claim, I’m reliably informed that the Council’s ‘English Reference Group’ is now asking teachers if they think it's OK for them to ignore the jury recommendations! No doubt this feedback will be ignored, too.

    Several English teachers have stated that “the new sample exams have many deficiencies and should not be foisted on English teachers and students”.

    This is what happens when ill-prepared courses are introduced prematurely. Do we want similar outcomes from another 30 courses?

    Admittedly, some courses are more ready than others. And it is possible that, with a huge amount of goodwill and after-hours work, they could be made ready for implementation next year.

    But this is asking teachers to do the Council’s job; teachers are employed to deliver the curriculum, not to create it.

    And given the very shabby treatment that teachers are receiving from this State Government, I don’t think there’s much good will remaining, much less a desire to put in hundreds of hours of extra unpaid work.

    As the Twomey Taskforce report noted [page 127]:

    “Another workload issue that was seen as a priority area for attention surrounds the constant changes to curriculum. These appear to be happening for all the wrong reasons and not necessarily for the good of education. As one submission states, Get the curriculum under control – stop experimenting with kids. It was argued in submissions that the shift from centralised to teacher curriculum development was not underpinned sufficiently in terms of either support or resourcing at the school level.”

    The minister has claimed that "if the union executive went ahead with a ban on preparing the Year 11 courses it would hurt students and anger parents” [Teachers ban 2009 courses planning, The West Australian, 24 June 2008].

    I disagree. Another slipshod implementation of inadequately-prepared new courses is what will “hurt students and anger parents”.

    Steve Kessell retired as Associate Professor, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University in 2004.
    
    To print this article:    
    
    
    

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • WA schools 104 teachers short
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "WA schools will be left short by about 104 teachers at the start of term three on Tuesday.
    
    "Education Department Deputy Director-General of Schools Margery Evans said as of noon on Friday, there were 79 full-time and 25 part-time teaching vacancies.
    
    "But the State School Teachers Union and Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said the figures did not "remotely reflect the true extent of the teachers' shortage'', which Mr Collier estimated to be in the hundreds.
    
    "They said many teachers were teaching outside their area of expertise to fill the gaps.
    
    "This means that, for example, you have a fully qualified physical education teacher trying to teach science or physics and that's not good enough,'' a union spokesman said.
    
    "Mr Collier said: "I had a head of department come to see me this week from a northern suburbs high school who said he would only have two science teachers in his science department at the beginning of term three.
    
    "The rest of the staff who are normally in the department will be non-specialist teachers who don't even know the syllabus.
    
    "The inevitable consequence of this situation is that students across the state will suffer.
    
    "There are no relief teachers, staff are having to fill in when their colleagues are sick or on leave.''
    
    "He said thousands of students were relying on distance education. And he said hundreds of principals, deputy principals and support staff had been forced back into classrooms because of shortages.
    
    "But an Education Department spokesman said it had always been the case that teachers might have to teach subjects outside their normal area to cover sick leave, short-term leave and emergencies.
    
    "Ms Evans said the shortfall was out of a teaching workforce of 21,500 and 27 of the vacancies were "under offer''.
    
    "We filled 43 positions just this week and expect the number of vacancies to drop further,'' she said.
    
    "Staffing more than 775 schools across the state is a continuous cycle.
    
    "Teachers take up and leave positions, usually after holidays and at the start of a term.
    
    "I can assure parents that every classroom will have a teacher when students return on Tuesday''.
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
  • ‘Truant’ parents let off (page 22)
    by Nicole Cox, Police Reporter
    
    “The Education Department has not made a single prosecution against parents of serial truants since laws threatening $1000 fines came into force in 1999.
    
    “The fines were trumpeted as a hardline strategy to stamp out truancy by holding to account parents of children with poor attendance records.
    
    “Each day, about 22,000 public school students are absent from classes. About half these absences go unexplained and are not due to sickness or family circumstances.
    
    “Police have expressed concern about the strength of measures used to rein in children who way school, leaving them free to roam suburban streets and commit crimes.
    
    “A large number of daytime crimes by juveniles on weekdays are committed by children who should be at school, and that is a concern for police,” Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan told The Sunday Times.
    
    “There is also evidence that some school-aged children are also committing offences at night time and then sleeping through the day when they should be at school.”
    
    “Mr. O’Callaghan said police were constantly developing ways to monitor recidivist juvenile offenders, but had been constrained by legal issues which limited the sharing of information inter-agency without parental permission.
    “When the parents provide consent for agencies to share information and work together, things can move forward,” he said.
    
    “Despite the lack of a single prosecution, Education Minister Mark McGowan said cases of truancy were taken seriously.
    
    “Governments have their part to play, but the main responsibility lies with parents,” Mr. McGowan said.
    
    “Parents have a responsibility to ensure their children attend school.”
    
    “We try to work with families first to deal with issues which may be preventing their children from going to school. Prosecution is only considered when all other attempts to engage families and improve attendance fail.”
    
    “The Education Department has several strategies to improve school attendance in indigenous communities, including the “No School, No Pool” programme in the Pilbarra and the offer of a football academy for boys in the Goldfields as an incentive.”
    
    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 71)
    
    
    • School deterrent
      
      “Fremantle-Peel education district acting director of schools Paul Meacock’s attitude in regard to student’s abusive conduct towards teachers (TST, July 13) is not the type of answer that is going to resolve the escalating problem in our schools. The damage and unpleasantness to law-abiding citizens from a small minority is not an acceptable situation.
      
      “Do we beat around the bush and continue to be intimidated by this minority or do we resolve this situation?
      
      “One thing is certain, the clear guidelines and consequences alluded by the acting director have not been much of a deterrent so far. 
      
      “Perhaps the fear of corporal punishment would help deter some of the would-be culprits.”
      
      Mario Rapanaro, Dianella 
      
      
      
      
• The West Australian
  

  • Editorial
    No-dole plan a crucial step in combating disadvantage (page 20)
    
    “It has taken a lot of bureaucratic toing-and-froing and timid dithering, but finally a scheme is to be introduced to combat truancy by children in welfare-dependent families. The aim surely is unobjectionable: to get children from such families to attend school regularly.
    
    “Education is the means by which such children are given the opportunity to break the pattern of welfare dependency. That too is widely acknowledged, as is the disastrous waste of human potential when youngsters don’t get the schooling that would equip them for fulfilling lives.
    
    “It is the planned means of trying to enforce school attendance that has drawn criticism and complaints. The Federal Government’s proposal, now supported by the State, is to suspend welfare payments to parents of children who skip school repeatedly. It is to be introduced as a pilot scheme in the Cannington district next year.
    
    “The main objection to this has been that it could become a further disadvantage to vulnerable families and worsen the truancy problem. However, all the scheme will do is to reinforce the fundamental responsibility of parents sending their children to school, surely not an intolerable burden for any family.
    
    “There is also and element of mutual obligation. If public money is provided for the upkeep of families, particularly for the welfare of children, then the recipients must implicitly accept some form of accountability about whether they fulfil their own obligations to the children.
    
    “Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin says the trial would not be focused just on Aboriginal children, nor should it be. However, it is the Aboriginal people who make up the most disadvantaged group in our society and have unacceptably bad truancy records in some places.
    
    “The scheme will have to be applied sensitively and monitored closely for fairness. For instance, there are cases where parents do what they can to get children to go to school but are ignored or disobeyed. Such parents should not be treated as if they were negligent. Some people may think it is harsh and potentially unfair to threaten families with suspension of welfare payments, but this worked dramatically to reduce truancy rates in Halls Creek when a similar scheme was tried there briefly.
    
    “Doing nothing about the tragic pattern of inherited disadvantage is no longer an option. The ingrained hopelessness of Aboriginal lives down the generations is an enduring disgrace to State administrations.
    
    “The terrible cost of official neglect timidity, indifference or inertia has been underscored again by the coronial report on deaths in the remote Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri. The report presents an appalling picture of the consequences of government failure to shield children from years of sexual abuse and neglect in a community that clearly has been in an advanced stage of social disintegration.  It said millions of taxpayers’ dollars were poured into the community but its housing was a disgrace and the conditions remained Third World.
    
    “In the context of the continuing tragedy that engulfs so many Aboriginal lives, the introduction of a no-school, no-dole scheme is a relatively small but significant step towards breaking the pattern of disadvantage. It should be accepted as a part of a much bigger effort that is needed to restore hope and dignity to mainly Aboriginal people.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Dole cuts for truants not fair: teachers (page 19)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “The teachers’ union has attacked a Federal Government plan to suspend welfare payments for families of children who skip school, saying it is a simplistic solution that puts an unfair burden on already disadvantaged people.
    
    “Shadow child protection minister Robyn McSweeney and Greens Senator Rachel Siewert have also condemned the no-school, no-welfare trial that will start in the Cannington education district from next year.
    
    “Under the new pilot scheme revealed on Thursday, welfare payments would be suspended to parents who fail to ensure their children go to school.
    
    “It is the first time the scheme has been used in any Australian city. It is also being tested in Northern Territory communities.
    
    “State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said she was concerned punitive measures such as withdrawing welfare payments could restrict children’s access to necessities such as food and medical assistance.
    
    “She said it was unfair to punish entire families because one child was refusing to attend school.
    
    “It seems like a simplistic solution,” she said. “We would want it to be monitored very closely.”
    
    “Families Minister Jenny Macklin said she expected the “tough love” approach would force parents to recognise it was their responsibility to make sure children did not end up being worse off.
    
    “Ms. McSweeney said it was more responsible to quarantine welfare payments rather than suspend them entirely. When payments were quarantined, parents could still get their bills paid and receive food vouchers.
    
    “It you suspend payments in total how are children meant to eat, how are they meant to be looked after properly?” she said.
    
    “Senator Siewert said the scheme was an old-fashioned and wrong-headed approach. “While the Minister claims this isn’t only Aboriginal families who are being targeted, there is not hiding the fact that the majority likely to be caught up by this scheme are the Nyoongar kids who have been abjectly failed by the WA school system,” she said.
    
    “Unless we are also addressing the underlying reasons why these kids hate going to school…this scheme will only serve to exacerbate family problems and make life all the more difficult.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    

    • Stupid move
      
      “Well, it’s official. The tools are running the workshop. The Government is going to withhold welfare payments from families who don’t make their children go to school.
      
      “That would be great if schools were allowed to discipline pupils with realistic punishment for unsatisfactory behaviour, but as it stands all that will be achieved is the pupils who wish to be educated will be disrupted by those forced to attend.
      
      “The other scenario is that the families with children who simply won’t attend school and have their payments curtailed will just go out and steal and rob to get their money.
      
      “I’m all for compulsory school attendance, but not at the expense of spoiling willing pupils’ ability to achieve their full potential due to unruly behaviour of children who know their rights but not their responsibilities.”
      
      Jack Dunn, Kardinya 
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed [late pickup from 18 July]
    Education debate must not be about public versus private
    by Julia Gillard
    
    "The focus of the schooling debate in Australia over many decades has been the competitive relationship between government and non-government schools. We have a historic opportunity to overcome this public-private divide. But we will not succeed if we use only tools of reform drawn from the past. And that presents a challenge to all of us, including the ALP and its traditional supporters.

    "Let's not pretend to ourselves or to each other that our education system can simply be broken down into two groups, with a disadvantaged public sector on the one side and a highly resourced non-government sector on the other."The most cursory examination of Australian schools would tell you this simply is not true. There are schools that struggle with limited resources trying to serve disadvantaged communities in both groups.

    "And let's not pretend that understanding educational outcomes is as simple as getting a statistician to break schools down on the basis of the socio-economic status of the children to predict their future achievement, on the assumption that demography is destiny. The reality is that schools with comparable cohorts of children come out with different results..."
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    

    • 19 July Letters to the Editor, in reply to Gillard's Op Ed
      
      
      
  • Lesson one: never be afraid to mix it up
    by Deborah Gough
    
    "Have you been stabbed yet?"

    "It's not the sort of question that fills a newly minted year 7 student with confidence. Nor their parents."And that was just the problem. Debney Park Secondary College had a reputation it couldn't shake, despite being one of Melbourne's better performing state high schools."Principal Michael O'Brien knew what the school had to offer, but it seemed the parents of children attending local primary schools viewed Debney Park as a school of last resort — behind other nearby state options and, increasingly, behind not-so-nearby private schools.

    "Bad reputations are hard to lose and so are good ones," Mr O'Brien said. "We know that some parents make an assumption about our school without setting foot inside it. We also know that some parents move to areas where a school has a 'name' without knowing anything, other than that, about it." ...
    
    Full story in The Sunday Age at link

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This page last updated 11 August, 2008 11:50 PM